| Show GEN CASSIUS M CLliY IiI Ii-I A Visit to the Noted Southern 1 Abolitonist CHAT WITH HIM ABOUT GREAT SLEN How the Modern Clucinnatns Lives on His Farm His Reminiscences of Gieat Men at Home and Abroad RICHMOND Ky Oct 1 lSDlSpecial correspondence of THE SUNDAY HEKALDJ Within six miles of this town in the richest of the famed blue grass region ot Kentucky lives one of the most interesting characters charac-ters in American history General Cas sius M Clay the first abolitionist of the slavo holders of the south a prominent I candidate for vicePresident at the time that Haml n was nominated our minister I to Russia during the administration of Abraham Lincoln and for the past fifty years one of the leading thinkers of the country he is today a eightytwo almost as strong intellectually and physically as he was when he made his first abolition speech as a student in Yale college nearly I sixty years ago His fourscore years have not diminished his courage and his arm is I as ready to strike in his own defense today to-day as it has been in the many deadly encounters en-counters of his past wherein in selfdof eno he has used the pistol and the knife in the support of his doctrines and has fought to i the death There is no braver man In tho I i I United States today than Cassius M Clay I and 1 doubt whether there is a gentler or more cultured one I have spent several days with him on his estate known as White Hall and have haJ hours of chatty conversation with him about the great men he has known and as to sjoine of the most stirring incidents of his eventful life GENERAL CLAY AT WHITE HALL Cassius M Clay was perhaps the richest young man in the south His father hud vast tracts of laud and he left him twenty two hundred acres of tho very best Kentucky Ken-tucky blue grass White hall is one of the finest mansions of the south General Ciay was bprn upon the spot on which he now lives and his fathers house cost fifty thousand thou-sand dollars and General Clay has added t > uch improvcmenis to it as make it cost thirty thousand dollars more It is a groat red brick of throe stories of nearly an I hundred feet front and almost the samo deptu It stands on a knoll and a rich rolling rol-ling country of forest and lawn slopes out en every side of it A wide hall is entered through a big front door and as you go in you see in niches on either side of you busts of Henry Clay and Horace Greeloy The bust of Greeley was taken when he was a young man and it was made by Joel Hart tbe fumous Kentuclty sculptor Cor 111 Clay Henry Clays bust is also by Hart I and both of them are originals of threat value The hall is so largo that you could turn a wagonload of buy about in it without with-out touching the walls It is furnished with sofas and chairs none of which are less than an hundred years old and upon 1 its walls hang works of art by famous j European painters Gortchakoff and l the I i Empress of Russia look down upon you I from the left as you enter and on the right 1 you see a magnificent painting by Laud I seer of Russia of the Czar Alexander II riding in ft sleigh To the right of this hall j I lira the parlors Their ceilings like that J of the hall are at least twenty feot high and they are luxuriously furnished and J have many beautiful paintings To the left of the hall is tne generals library consisting I consist-ing of two large rooms and back of this is the dinin room The second floor is of tho same generous dimensions and my bedroom j bed-room had ceilings fifteen square Shortly altar I was atown to BUT worn a niate of sf he most luscious grapes was sent up and I General Clay has perhaps the finest fruit I in Kentucky He is famed for his watermelons water-melons and on the inside of the hail near i the door I noted at least a score of great I melons some of which werp four feet long I jnd about eighteen inches in diameter 1 found them as sweet as they looked and General Clay discussed the fruit as we ate them logother The best melons said be one day as wo were getting away with ane about the size of a wastepaper basket never get into the market They have thin and britle rinds and they are sure to break in shipping You note that this melon has white seeds and still it is as ripe as it can be I find that the seeds of melons change with cultivation and the seeds of this stock were black when I began to cultivate cul-tivate them a few years ago but they have changed from year to year until they are now as white as snow Duringourineals we ate as a rule alone for the general keeps bachelors hallhe discusse gastronomy and the laws of health and told mo that ho attributed his longevity to temperance in eating and that ho always got up from the table hungry Ho preferred vegetables to meats and though tile table was loaded down with good things ho took but little Ho proudly said that everything on his table with the exception of the pepper the salt and the coffee had been raised by him on his fnrm nnil th t he felt hannv in beinc independent L Atone time during my stay ho talked of farming aud said that he found the raising of southdown sheep and export cattle the most profitable and I am told that he has the finest sheep in the United States Within the past few years General Clay has divided up a large part of his Ken tucy lands and has iriven them to his sons He still holds however 330 acres about his home and tho working of this is his business busi-ness and amusement LINCOLN AND sew AnD One evening during my stay I asked Mr i Clay who was the greatest man he had ever known Ha replied I believe that Abraham Abra-ham Lincoln was the greatest man this country has over produced As a diplomat ho was greater than all his diplomats Asa As-a general he was superior to any general in I the army andas a statesman ho far outranked I out-ranked his cabinet He Was ckgaed in his administration by his cabinet and ho had some bad elements aoout him Take Seward I Se-ward for instance Ho was not in sympathy sympa-thy with Lincoln He was a man of no 1 principle and he was always workinsr for himself und stealing from the presidency I knew Seward very well before the convention con-vention of 1530 aud called on hm here a1 Washington He was then very anxious to bo President and ho showed me a paper ho had written in which ho announced I was for the Union slave or free That killed him with mo and I then decided that 1 would have nothing to do with his candidacy candi-dacy He knew that I went against nim and he bccumo my enemy and we were enemies I ene-mies till the day of his death He was secretary of state while I was in Russia and heaped many petty Insults upon me 1 first met Lincoln oeforo ho was elected to Congress It was during a lecture that I gave at Springfield and Lincoln was sitting sit-ting whittling in the back part of the crowd I I became well acquainted with him later on I and when ho was nominated I was leading candidate for viuaPrasident but I did not go to the convention nor make any effort to have iny friends nominate me and Hamlin was chosen President Lincoln wrote me shortly after this that he intended to appoint ap-point me secretary of war I bad served in the Mexican war and had some iniltary training I would have accepted tho position t posi-tion and I remained at Kentucky at my home hero waiting for Lincoln to fulfil his promise At last one day received a letter let-ter telling me I had been made Minister to Spain I did not want the Spanish mission and I btrrted at once to Washington to see about it HOW A HUSSTAN MINISTER WAS APPOINTED I I wont to the White House as soon as I got to Washington continued General Clay and found tho President in tho library li-brary Ho received mo pleasantly and I told him rl once that I could not take the I mission to Spsiu Said I I dont want togo to-go to any of tho effete monarchies of I Europe I have served all my life for my I party and I have never asked for an office I had thought that I might take one as 9 I I sort of vindication of my principles but since you have so many better men than J mYself I think I had better co bade to g h J J J I tuck and retire to private life Lincoln I who had been rather reserved up to this time here got UD and put his hand on my shoulder and said I dont want you to KO home Mr Clay I want to do something for you but I am so hedged around here that I cant do just what I wi 1 Isnt there some place I you will tukeJ Well said I You have tnude up your cabinrt How about the missions to France and England l Preai den Lincoln then said that these had been j i promised to Adams and Dayton and that 1 he didnt seo how he could let me have I either of them Well said I that settles I 1 I will I it There is no other place want go back to Kentucky President Lincoln again urged ine not to fjo He said Stay a few days Mr Clay and I will see what i can be done This was in the morning I That evening I dined with San ord who i hud just been made minister to Belgium t While we were at dinner the waiter came I to mj and told me tnat Senator Baker of Oregon wanted me to stop out into the hall for a moment I had known Baker very i well in toe Mexican war Ho was a noble I fellow I left the table and went out He said The President has sent me to see you Ho has been considering your case and he wants to do something to please you Ho wants to know if something elso except London or Paris will not bo acceptable to i you Why dont you take the Kussian ministry Russia is a jreat country and it Ii j may oo an important element in the coming struggle It ia one of the greatest courts I of Europe and if I were you I would take it I Well continued General Clay I just had a good dinner and Baker was my I friend und 1 finally toM him that I would I take the Russian mission and that ho might I go and tell the President that I would accept ac-cept it if ho would appoint me or if he would wait until the amuer was over I I would go with him Wait for the dinner I said he Hang tho dinner Lets go to the White House iiovr I have a cab here and I tell you the President is waiting All right said 1 and with that I went with him to the White House President Lincoln was sitting in his office His legs wore airatched out His head was resting on his hands and he was in deep thought As we came in Mr BaHer sad Mr President Clay will take the Ru siau musion Lincoln sprang to h s feet and shook me by both hands and said Clay I thank vou You relievo ma of great em barrassments And so I wont to Russia TIlE EXPERIENCES OF A DIPLOMAT How did you like your mission I asked askedVery much indeed replied General Clay And I thmK I did a great deal for America during my stay there It vas through me that Alaska was seeded to the I United States and I carried on all the pre iminary negotiations The question came up first through the project for building a telegraph line through Siberia across Bearing Bea-ring straits An American traveler named Perry McD Collins had gonefacross Siberia and he had interested Mr Sioley the president pres-ident of the Western Union Telegraph in the scheme for building a telegraph line from America acrtss Behring straits through Europe to St Petersburg Sibley attempted to get a charter for this line through me and I got one which would have mado the fortunes of the company had they not opolled the job at Washington through our secretary of state Seward pressing the infamous Perkins claim In my charter wo had a clause which provided that every telegram from Siberia to St Peterburg should pay to the American company a rebate of onehalf of the price of the telegram This I got out of my friendships at St Petersburg and I had in terested two of the grand dukes of Russia to take stock in the company Then Seward I Se-ward pressed the Perkins claim It was an I outrageous steal and Seward Knew it KB j I commanded ma to press it and I haaded his letter to Prince Gortcaacow Gortcha cow read and spoke English as well aa I do He looKed over tho letter and then slapped it down on the tablo and emphatically said We will go to war boforo we will pay a single red kopeck of it From this time on ho was angrj with Seward and ho refused re-fused to give any concessions in favor of the telegraph line He was well enough satisfied to have it built but he did not Intend 1 In-tend to show any favors I then got them the right to build the line under other conditions con-ditions and through this came about the negotiations which gave us Alaska u What do yon think of George Kennana article on Russia said I I dont think much of them replied General Clay I dont think tho man is acting like a gantleman Ho accepted their hospitalities and ha is now misconstruing and misrepresenting them I dont bo lieve there are any greater cruelties committed com-mitted in the Russian prisons than there are in tho American prisons We have lately had an investigation here in Ken iucky and the testimony goes to show that our prisoners were fed on bad meat The warden complained of it and he is discharged dis-charged and we let our prisone s to the same people who have oppressed them Russia is a great country and the United States owes a great deal to Russia They were our f rienes during the late war and I can toll you we needed friends then Tile English were as strong for the south ai were the people of South Carolina Germany Ger-many and France both wanted to see us fail They all supported the south in an underhanu way and had it not been for their fear of Russia they would have supported sup-ported it openly I enjoyed mj stay at St Petersburg I was on close terms with the Czar and I knew Prince Gortchacow intimately inti-mately Ho was one of tho greatest men of Europe and he was practically tho governor gov-ernor of Russia He was the equal oftBis murck or Disraeli i and ho was a man of equal culture with either or them STORIES OF HENRT CLVT Cassius M Clay was a cousin of Henry Clay Lexington is not more than an hours rUle from Richmond and General Clay knew his great relative well He says that Clay would have made a great general and he says that the similarity in all respects between Clay and Jackson was striking They had heads very much alike and they were intellectually much the same in character I char-acter I believe that Clay would havo been President of the United States had ho I hud a chance to distinguish himself in the army and the only man in the past whom I I can compare with Clay and Jackson Is JUlius Caedar All three possessed great I moral courage all were statesmen and Clay would have made I think an equally i good general with Jackson or Cesar Clar hai rtinarakablo physical courage They I toll a story of him in Lexington during his early law practice there He was a tall gaunt young fellow of twentyone or I twentytwo years of age when he imagined i himself insulted by a man who was ten or nh 2nv iiffaan iroava rutlat thtin da tvoe nvliA I U < 111 1 u u a au lIU I was very much stronger Clay attempted to fight the man and the man knocked him down Now it was the custom in those days for the under man when he found he could not succeed against his adversary to crv enough and tha man then got off him Clay would not cry enough and the crowd thinking he would bo killed pulled the man Ilt No sooner had Clay gotten to his feet than he went at the man again and he was again knocked down and pounded The man was pulled < ff and Clay again attacked him and finally in order to save CJay from being killed his friends took his opponent into a store and kept Clay on the outside for tear he should fight himself to death Clay had a number of duels and he had a good military mind 1 CLAY AND WEBSTER I How did he compare with Webster I i asked I Henry Clay was an entirely different man from Webster replied Casaius M Clay Webster was a great man intellectually but ho had none of the natural quickness of Clay and I dont think he had as great a soul as Clay had He was not a man of great personal magnetism and I dont think his moral character was as good as that of Mr Clays I first met him when I was a boy on my way to college and 1 was greatly impressed with him then and be was Clays superior in education and In generalization Ha had none of the quicu ness of Clay however He was not as gross as Webster and as far as his relations with the other px are concerned he was a much purer man Clay was particular about money matters Webster was perpetually borrowing from his friends ana ho lett a will full ol bequests which his friends were to pay I dont think anyone who over knew Henry Cia failed to like him Ho was a friend of mine and he was my lawyer law-yer in the suit which was brought against me for carving up the notorious bully 3 M Brown FKANK G CARPENTER |
